A couple weeks ago, I bought some red bananas that never ripened, until they became over-ripe. So I made some of my classic banana bread. With all the anti-gluten hype recently, I decided to make a split batch, half using rye and spelt, half using my typical wheat. I don’t think there is anything to the anti-gluten fad, but I intend to share this bread with those who do. As a near-vegetarian, whole grains are an important source of protein in my diet, so I eat a lot of gluten. Spelt is a type of wheat, but it does not contain the form of gliadin that causes those with celiac disease problems. It does have more protein than the typical red and white wheat though. Rye has half the gluten as wheat, but does not have glutenin. Gluten is the protein that allows bread to rise and gives it good texture, so I wasn’t expecting the rye and spelt batch to rise very well. I had about twenty pounds of wheat left, as well as a little rye and spelt. I ground the wheat on its own, and the spelt and rye together for these breads.

I was surprised at how well the low-gluten bread rose; my other high rye and spelt breads have not risen nearly as well. The regular whole wheat batch (right) definitely rose better, but both batches tasted very good. The red bananas give the bread a very banana-y taste without using too much banana. It will be interesting to play around with whole grain banana breads instead of pure whole wheat.

See also:

Reference:

@book{
	reinhart2011,
	Author = {Reinhart, Peter},
	Publisher = {Ten Speed Press},
	Title = {Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor},
	Year = {2011}
}